Tag Archive | "ben"

One thing for sure, the economy didn’t affect the Orioles and their off-season efforts.

They kept almost all of their money. It’s hard to feel the pinch when you don’t spend any of it.

The Birds acquired Rich Hill today and he’s likely to battle Jeremy Guthrie and Koji Uehra for the right to lose to the Yankees on either day one, two or three of the regular season in April.

At least Hill has more career wins (18) than Guthrie (17) and Uehara (0).

Granted, the Cubs got one good year out of Hill, who made 32 starts in 2007 and was 3rd in the national league with 183 strikeouts. Last year, they got five starts out of him before he was shut down in early May.

Sounds like he’ll fit right in with all the other question-marks the O’s signed this winter.

All of those pitchers have TWO things in common: 1) They’re all relatively inexpensive, except Uehara, who will make $1.25 million LESS than Jon Garland despite the fact Garland is younger and has 106 more major league wins than Uehara…and 2) no one else in the league wanted them…

I said at the beginning of the off-season that I would wait until February rolled around to determine the success level of the O’s winter efforts.

February is here. I’m unimpressed.

Naturally, the O’s apologists will prattle on about how much “upside” all of these n’er do wells like Hennessey, Pauley and Hill have…”upside” is code word for: “at one point people thought they were going to be good and then they turned out to be not-so-good but maybe there’s still hope…”

Bottom line: The O’s could have spent money on pitchers.

Bottom line: They didn’t.

The only reasonable off-season move the team made was re-signing Nick Markakis and even that $66 million contract is backloaded to pay him nearly $16 million six years from now. In 2009, Nick The Stick will perform his services for $3 million as part of his staggered payment schedule. They also added slick-fielding shortstop Cesar Izturis, but I would have used that money to bring Garland in and would have given the no-hit, good-field shortstop position to Juan Castro. What do I know?

I can’t figure out for the life of me why the Orioles are afraid to spend money on quality players. They have the money at their disposal. They just don’t want to spend it. Why not? If only I could ask Andy MacPhail that question without having him scurry off to the soda table.

It’s obvious the team’s star-studded minor league pitching roster isn’t yet ready for prime time. Had the likes of Arietta and Tillman been thought of as “opening day ready” the Birds wouldn’t have gone out in search of a journeyman like Hendrickson and a throw-away like Hill.

With Arietta and Tillman NOT ready, why wouldn’t the O’s have invested some money on Garland, Lowe, Sheets, et al?

Is losing just so acceptable these days that we’ll take the lesser-of-two-evils (inexpensive) and be satisfied with that no matter what the results might be?

I don’t get it.

It’s clearly been an off-season of save and purge for the O’s…

There’s only one way we’ll all be able to determine if the fans buy into the team’s off-season efforts.

Butts in seats.

The green seats at Camden Yards will have the loudest voice in 2009.

If it’s anything like last year, or worse, the silence will be deafening as the customers give a dismissive wave and say, “no thanks”.

With one drive and a bullet-throw into the corner of the end zone, Ben Roethlisberger is now on the turnpike…heading towards Canton. It’s tough to give a guy a Hall-of-Fame-hint just five years into his career, but that’s the path Roethlisberger has made for himself with two Super Bowl triumphs to date, including Sunday’s dramatic 27-23 win over Arizona.

Like we saw in Baltimore on three occasions this past season, Pittsburgh’s quarterback is the difference in the game. The Arizona Cardinals were the latest victim, as they had the Super Bowl won until Big Ben engineered yet another last ditch drive to give the Steelers their 2nd title in four years.

Don’t look now, but the great Peyton Manning has one less ring than Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger’s game-winning throw was almost as good as the catch, hauled in with precision by MVP Santonio Holmes. The touchdown saved Pittsburgh from a summer of remorse, as their vaunted defense was torched in the 4th quarter by Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald. The primary burn victim? No surprise there…it was Pittsburgh cornerback Ike Taylor, who will spend most of the next six weeks in gauze after getting lit up on a half-dozen occasions in the second half.

The dramatic late-game heroics also saved the league from a day of headlines as the referees again took over in the second half and threw out more yellow flags than Springsteen had band members during the halftime show. I know the old adage is “the refs could call a penalty on every play”…but do they have to do that?

Arizona has nothing to be ashamed of, having halted the much-talked about Pittsburgh running game and stopping the Steelers three times inside the Cardinals’ ten yard line. Larry Fitzgerald proved he’s one of the best receivers in the league and Warner showed Hall-of-Fame mettle in the second half when the Cards worked their way back into the game. That was a very good Arizona team that lost tonight.

There’s not much else to say. The Roethlisberger-Holmes connection on the game-winning throw will go down as one of those “Montana to Clark” moments.

Someday, on a hot August afternoon in Canton, Ohio, I’m sure they’ll show that highlight a few times when #7 gets inducted.

I know, one game at a time. The Ravens still have a way to go in order to bring home a Super Bowl victory, but if they do they will most likely have to go through some Super Bowl experienced QB’s.

How much does Super Bowl experience help as you travel through the NFL playoffs? It’s hard to quantify what each player’s experience means but as the pressure mounts it can only be to their advantage to have been through it before.

Currently with 8 teams left in the hunt, 6 of these teams have QB’s that have been on the NFL’s biggest stage. These names include Kurt Warner (twice), Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, and Eli Manning.

The two players yet to go are Philip Rivers and Joe Flacco. Rivers saw action in last years AFC championship game where he lost to the Patriots while nursing an injured leg (19/37 211 yds 0 TD – 2 Int).

Flacco on the other hand is still new to the playoffs, but since when has he seemed phased by anything? Will he be bothered by the media attention or the perceived pressure as he moves through each game? If this season is any indication we may have the exception to the rule, but the Ravens will have their hands full with whoever they play.

Below are the SB performances of the QB’s still alive in this years playoffs:

In light of the events that transpired last weekend in the game between the Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, it seems like a good time to get back on my soap box about instant replay and the adjustments that need to be made.

Lets begin with the call of whether the pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes to win the game was a good call or not.I thought the league and Walt Coleman, the official, did a good job of explaining the process he went through in determining the legitimacy of the play.They had to determine whether Holmes had both feet on the ground, with position of theball.Clearly, this was the case.

Next, Coleman had to determine if the ball did indeed cross the plane.This is where it gets interesting.Having been through this scenario dozens of times in my nine years as a head coach I know full well what will transpire during the offseason with regards to this play.Beginning with the Competition Committee, then on to the League Meetings and the full contingent of coaches, general managers and owners, this play will be looked out countless times, in ultra-slow motion and freeze frame, to determine if the ball crossed the plane.After which, like today, 50% of those who saw it will believe it did cross the goal and the other 50% will not. Whether in slow motion or during live action a call of this nature is going to be subjective.

Having recognized the subjectivity of the call, what I take issue with is the fact that via the current replay system the official was put into a position, during a relatively short period of time, to determine what everyone in the NFL will still not be able to definitively say was a good or bad call.Instant replay was instituted with the specific mandate of eliminating the “egregious mistake”.How can a call be considered egregious, if during the calm of the offseason, with all the technology available today, we still can not definitively say what was or was not the right call.

Whatever the call on the field that was made — and in this instance it was ruled Holmes did not cross the plane of the goal line — the video replay was certainly not “irrefutable” evidence to the contrary. Therefore the call on the field should stand.I would say the same thing had the call been made the other way.

My contention all along has been that with the tools available to us today it seems that the need to have the officials leave the field of play and stick their heads into a “peep” show to determine the right call is unnecessary. The replay officials have the capacity to quickly communicate with the Referee any observations they have with regards to the “egregious” error that may have happened on the field, not unlike the college system.This would prove to be a minimal interruption of the game and would give the Referee another source with which to get the call right.

A case in point:When a play is made along the side, by way of a pass reception, and a debate insures between say a Back judge and Line judge who are involved in the call, the Referee will go to both individual and ask, “What did you see?”.The two factors involved, of course, are: did the player have possession and did he get his feet inbounds?If each saw it the same way then the call is easy.If there were a difference of opinion the referee would simply try to ascertain who had the best view.If you were at the same time able to gain a perspective from the replay booth and given that opinion the referee would have all the information possibly available to make the right call.Would this insure 100% accuracy on all call? Of course not…

Currently the calls on the field are upheld roughly between 75% & 80% of the time. And of that 20-to-25%, approximately 5-to-8% of the time it is overruled, the original call was deemed correct, all but after the fact.My contention is that at the very least these percentages will be maintained and there would be virtually no interruption to the natural flow of the game.

At its best, the flow of information given to the Referee will be in a manner that might indeed enhance the chances of the calls on the field being corrected at a more efficient rate.

You don’t deserve to win if you can’t score more than 9 points at home.

That’s about simple as it gets when reviewing what happened to the Ravens on Sunday in their 13-9 loss to the Steelers.

How the final score became 13-9 isn’t simple, however.

In the end, Pittsburgh’s quarterback – like he does A LOT – figured out a way to get his team a win when it looked all but over. A 92-yard drive in the final four minutes included a questionable defensive strategy from Baltimore, a secondary that suddenly stopped playing hard and a pass into the end zone that will forever be debated. Did Santonio Holmes get in — or not?

The referees said he did. Every replay I saw looked like the ball didn’t break the plane — but I’ll admit it was awfully, awfully, close. Too close to call…which is why I’m glad I didn’t have to call it.

In a weird kind of way, it’s almost fitting that the game’s fate hinged on an instant replay call. That’s how close the game was today. It took a bunch of guys rewinding the tape a half dozen times and trying to find one INCH of evidence to determine the winner. It’s just a shame the wrong team won.

This one will be talked about for a long time to come.

For starters, as I wrote earlier today: “If the Steelers come into M&T Bank Stadium and win, they’re the better team. God bless ’em.”

Well, I’ll man-up and say it: The Steelers are better than the Ravens. That’s the truth. Not by much, mind you. Maybe only by a matter of inches. In two games this season, the TOTAL points separating the two teams? SEVEN. In two games, the BIGGEST difference between the clubs: the quarterback. Our QB is good and will only get better. Their quarterback is a prize fighter who just won’t go down. And he always seems to deliver the knock-out blow just when you think you finally have him beat.

But just because Pittsburgh won today doesn’t necessarily mean I’d be petrified to see the Ravens play them again in the post-season. Not one bit. And, while realizing how much it hurts right now if you’re a Baltimore fan, let’s think about this a little more clearly: if the football Gods smile upon us and give the Ravens another crack at the Steelers in the post-season and Baltimore WINS that game, will any of us really care that we went 1-2 against the Black and Gold in 2008? Of course not.

Pittsburgh’s defense didn’t buckle on Sunday. Baltimore’s defense did. One time. And that’s all that Roethlisberger needed to mount his last ditch drive that rivals any ending in Ravens’ history.

It was an epic battle on the defensive side of the ball in which both teams tried to lay claim to their superiority. Neither offense was particularly effective. In fact, there’s a fairly valid argument that Baltimore’s MVP of the game was punter Sam Koch. Seriously. When that happens, you know it was a defensive chess game.

In the 4th quarter, the Ravens stopped chasing Ben down and started putting more help in the secondary. The injury to Fabian Washington might have necessitated some of that extra assistance, as Frank Walker came in and perhaps Rex Ryan felt as if he didn’t want to rely on Walker in one-on-one coverage. I saw very little pass rush pressure in the 4th quarter, though, and when you give Roethlisberger time to shake and bake, he cooks you. All you have to do is watch that final TD throw to Santonio Holmes to see #7 buying time for himself until he could find the open man. Rex Ryan will be a target of talk show callers and bloggers alike this week, I’m sure. The 3-man rush utilized by the Ravens on the final drive wasn’t the answer. And when your team loses, people want answers.

So, it’s on to Dallas for the Ravens and a week of talk about having to go to Big D to win a game that could either make or break Baltimore’s season.

The Ravens are far from out of it, mind you, but today’s loss puts Pittsburgh IN and leaves Baltimore hanging on the edge, where one more series, one more throw or one more instant replay could leave them home come playoff time.

Again, there wasn’t much shake up in the quarterback rankings this week. On the bright side, close to half of the top 20 weren’t very highly regarded at draft time, so there could still be a few good options on the waiver wire. The playoffs are here for a lot of us, so make sure to take a look at all of the rankings, as every decision is magnified at this time of the season.

Keep in mind that the power rankings, listed here, are based on year to date performance and not a reflection of your best options for week 14. Just below the power rankings are match up previews advising who should be better or worse than usual this week, based on their opponents. At the bottom, are the week 14 start rankings, that’s where you should look for help with your week 14 lineup decisions.

And here are the week 14 Fantasy QB start rankings; it’s all 32 projected starting QBs in the order that you should consider them this week. They were gotten using the Fantasy Flavor secret formula, and have their formulary numbers in parentheses, the lower the better. We’ll get all of the positional rankings out to you in time for Thursday’s game, so keep checking back for the rest.

All of the rankings will be up in time for you to get your Thursday lineups in, so check back tomorrow for the rest. And use the links below to check all of the other positions; they’ll be activated as they become available.

Here are the week 13 fantasy tight end power rankings and weekly start rankings too. There are 3 games on the slate for today, so don’t forget to get your lineup changes in before you get locked out of the early games.

Keep in mind that the power rankings, listed here, are based on year to date performance and not a reflection of your best options for week 13. Just below the power rankings are match up previews advising who should be better or worse than usual this week, based on their opponents. At the bottom, are the week 13 start rankings, that’s where you should look for help with your week 13 lineup decisions.

And here are the week 13 Fantasy TE start rankings; it’s the top 35 tight ends in the order that you should consider them this week. They were gotten using the Fantasy Flavor secret formula, and have their formulary numbers in parentheses, the lower the better.

1. Antonio Gates (10)

2. Tony Scheffler (10)

3. Tony Gonzalez (21)

4. Owen Daniels (26)

5. Dallas Clark (28)

6. Bo Scaife (29)

7. Dustin Keller (30)

8. Anthony Fasano (30)

9. Kevin Boss (33)

10. Jason Witten (36)

11. Visanthe Schaincoe (40)

12. Kellen Winslow Jr. (43)

13. Heath Miller (43)

14. Daniel Graham (46)

15. Jerramy Stevens (48)

16. Greg Olsen (48)

17. Chris Cooley (51)

18. Billy Miller (51)

19. Mercedes Lewis (51)

20. Jerrame Tuman (55)

21. Zach Miller (57)

22. John Carlson (62)

23. Martellus Bennett (62)

24. LJ Smith (63)

25. Alex Smith (66)

26. David Martin (70)

27. Brent Celek (73)

28. Justin Peele (73)

29. Dante Rosario (76)

30. Vernon Davis (76)

31. Todd Heap (79)

32. Donald Lee (82)

33. Alge Crumpler (85)

34. Desmond Clark (86)

35. Benjamin Watson (90)

You can use the links at the bottom of the page to check out the rest of this week’s positional rankings. Have a great holiday, and good luck this week.

There’s not a lot of shake up in this week’s QB rankings, There are however plenty of quarterbacks among the top twenty who were overlooked on draft day and through much of the season. In fact, there’s a decent chance that you’ll still be able to find one of these top 20 still on your league’s waiver wire. There are 3 games on tap for Thursday this week, so we’ll have all of the rankings out in time to set your lineups well before the first kickoff on Thanksgiving Day.

Keep in mind that the power rankings, listed here, are based on year to date performance and not a reflection of your best options for week 13. Just below the power rankings are match up previews advising who should be better or worse than usual this week, based on their opponents. At the bottom, are the week 13 start rankings, that’s where you should look for help with your week 13 lineup decisions.

And here are the week 13 Fantasy QB start rankings; it’s all 32 projected starters in the order that you should consider them this week. They were gotten using the Fantasy Flavor secret formula, and have their formulary numbers in parentheses, the lower the better. We’ll get all of the positional rankings out to you in time for Thursday’s games, so keep checking back for the rest.

1. Tony Romo (9)

2. Jay Cutler (17)

3. Phillip Rivers (24)

4. Drew Brees (30)

5. Kurt Warner (30)

6. Donavan McNabb (31)

7. Brett Favre (32)

8. Shaun Hill (33)

9. Chad Pennington (33)

10. Peyton Manning (34)

11. Aaron Rodgers (35)

12. Matt Ryan (37)

13. David Garrard (41)

14. Tyler Thigpen (42)

15. Trent Edwards (44)

16. Jeff Garcia (46)

17. Matt Cassel (47)

18. Joe Flacco (47)

19. Eli Manning (49)

20. Kerry Collins (56)

21. Ben Roethlisberger (57)

22. Kyle Orton (60)

23. Jason Campbell (63)

24. Sage Rosenfels (64)

25. Jake Delhomme (70)

26. Marc Bulger (70)

27. Gus Frerotte (71)

28. JaMarcus Russell (72)

29. Matt Hasselbeck (77)

30. Ryan Fitzpatrick (83)

31. Brady Quinn / Derek Anderson (88)

32. Daunte Culpepper / Drew Stanton (92)

All of the rankings will be up in time for you to get your Thursday lineups in, so keep checking back. You can use the links below to check all of the other positions; they’ll be activated as they become available.

The Ravens used an opportunistic offense and myriad of breakdowns by the hapless visitors to pummel the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium, 36-7 this afternoon.

Andy Reid’s benching of Donovan McNabb at halftime will surely be debated across three states and the calling for his head surely will begin for calling a pass play at the goal line early in the fourth quarter when the Eagles were about six inches from making it a one-score game.

Hard to say who was more quiet today at frigid M&T Bank Stadium today — the Eagles fans or the Ravens fans. It was a strange day of football all the way around.

The game was long and out-of-synch in its pacing and reminded me of what would be the beginning of the end of Brian Billick’s tenure here — the ugly game in Detroit two years ago.

Nothing the Eagles did went right. They got hosed on a couple of calls. Both of their quarterbacks threw hideous passes. The Ravens — and mainly Joe Flacco — stunk for most of the first half and the Eagles still couldn’t manage to score any points beyond the kickoff return, which clearly embarrassed John Harbaugh and his special teams sensibilities.

But feel free to roundly celebrate: the Ravens are 7-4 and looked quite impressive in the end in “playing four quarters” and out smash-mouthing their neighbors from Filthy.

It’s Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for football-wise in Baltimore because we can legitimately start talking playoffs with a chance to be 8-4 next Sunday with a strong effort in Cincinnati.

Where to begin?

Ed Reed ran a 108-yard interception back through traffic that seemed like the Stanford band. Ed Reed also got burned trying to lateral a ball to Samari Rolle in heavy traffic near the goal line. (Somewhere, Billick was still yelling at him!)

Dan Wilcox caught a TD pass after thinking he might not even play.

Jared Gaither played through the pain. Adam Terry left the game early with a concussion and the offensive line still kept coming back for more. At one point, Ben Grubbs left the game. And David Hale was spotted in there mixing it up quite a bit as well.

The Ravens continued to stop the Eagles rushing attack all day long, and seemed to welcome the benching of McNabb for Kevin Kolb, who was largely as ineffective as No. 5. His one drive of note to lead the team back into the game was nullfyed and reversed when Reed went the distance on one of the most amazing plays in Ravens history.

Le’Ron McClain continues to shine his own star as a fullback who has made a seamless transition into a big-time power back, rushing for 88 yards and one breakaway touchdown late in the game when most of the Eagles fans had put down their cheesesteaks and pretzels and headed back toward the Maryland House on I-95.

Mark Clayton was a factor in the game today and we’d love to see more of that. He also made fun of his own endzone celebration.

Jarret Johnson had a huge game and made a pick on McNabb that Harbaugh described as “one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen.”

Matt Stover hit a long field goal when the team needed it.

And Jameel McClain registered his second safety of the season and he’s only been on the team for a few weeks.

Overall, the defense was awesome all day. They pitched a shutout that was only tainted by the kickoff return by Quinton Demps. (Kinda reminded me of another game against an NFC East team where the only score was a return for a touchdown on an otherwise perfect day. Of course, it was a little warmer on Jan. 28, 2001.)

I’ll be writing some more later and posting post-game video. It was largely an “homage” to Ed Reed and the kind of game he had today. (And at one point, he fell to his knees and was all but tackled to leave the field when he couldn’t lift his arm.)

Feel free to throw your comments in and we’ll launch them soon enough.

A great day to be a Ravens fan. The team is 7-4 and headed to Cincinnati. This was a huge win.

And the Eagles fans were strangely silent from whistle to whistle, slithering out of the stadium while the Ed Reed celebration commenced right around 4 p.m.

Just for the sake of making everything easier, I’ve decided to post the week 12 Fantasy Start Rankings for all 6 positions in one place. It’s the same start rankings that you can find on the bottoms of each of the Positional Power Rankings for week 12. You can locate those power rankings by using the links at the bottom of this page too.

Listed below are the formulary start rankings for each of the 6 positions, with their formulary number listed in parentheses next to them. The formulary rankings are gotten using the “secret fantasy flavor formula”, it’s basically 2 parts player performance, 1 part defensive expectations against them this week, with a few variables thrown in for injuries and anomalies.

As news becomes available over the course of the weekend, I’ll make notes here too, so keep checking back. And at the end of the day, trust your gut, and have fun. That’s why we play the games after all anyway. And good luck to you this week as the playoffs approach.

QUARTERBACKS

1. Peyton Manning (15) @SD

2. Aaron Rodgers (21) @ NO

3. Jay Cutler (22) vs. OAK

4. Tony Romo (22) vs. SF

5. Kurt Warner (29) vs. NYG

6. Shaun Hill (31) @ DAL

7. Brady Quinn (31) vs. HOU

8. Drew Brees (35) vs. GB

9. Eli Manning (36) @ AZ

10. Phillip Rivers (40) vs. IND

11. Matt Cassel (40) @ MIA

12. Kyle Orton (42) @ ST.L

13. Tyler Thigpen (43) vs. BUF

14. Gus Frerotte (43) @ JAX

15. Jeff Garcia (44) @ DET

16. Donavan McNabb (45) @ BAL

17. Jason Campbell (48) @ SEA

18. David Garrard (52) vs. MIN

19. Brett Favre (53) @ TEN

20. Chad Pennington (57) vs. NE

21. Sage Rosenfels (61) @ CLE

22. Kerry Collins (61) vs. NYJ

23. Matt Ryan (62) vs. CAR

24. Joe Flacco (64) vs. PHI

25. Jake Delhomme (68) @ ATL

26. Ben Roethlisberger (69) vs. CIN

27. JaMarcus Russell (70) @ DEN*about the same if it’s Walter or Tuisasopo